My Weakness

I'm a sucker for pomegranate. If you put it on the label, there is a good chance I'll buy it at least once. My latest pomegranate impulse buy was this gum.




It not too bad. My normal gum choice is something with mint. However, if I'm ever craving berry, I would consider this again. I'm not sure it has a strong pomegranate taste, but good none the less.

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Grandma Camp!

I have the best parents in the world. Every summer my mother hosts a week long Grandma Camp for the grandkids. Yes, a whole week with just the kids. This year we decided to do it in shifts with an overlapping weekend for the grandkids (and kids.)

To celebrate I decided to make shirts for the grandkids. I wish I'd thought ahead and made one for Grandma too, but there is always next year. I originally was planning to use freezer paper to stencil the words and design. I jumped on the computer and played around with some ideas in PowerPoint until I created something I liked. First I came up with the saying. I kept playing around with the idea of Hanging Around with Grandma, but ended up settling on Monkeying Around at Grandma Camp. After choosing the idea of a monkey, I looked at different clipart. While looking at them, I decided to applique the face of the monkey in the middle of each shirt. I knew I would need some brown and tan knit. When Hobby Lobby didn't have any tan, I thought I would try Savers. I could always use the rest of the fabric for a future project. So I bought two t-shirt in the right colors to cut up. Thank goodness that Savers is color coordinated. Next I scoured Walmart to find the shirts. I wasn't able to find ones that I like for all the kids so I dyed white ones instead. While at Hobby Lobby I did pick up some dye just in case. I like how the color turned out slightly variegated. I didn't stir constantly so the dye soaked in differently across the fabric. (It is hard to tell in the picture, but trust me it's cute.)

The one and two year olds have matching plain t-shirts. For the almost five year old I bought a single shirt with a little more detailing. The top is a little gathered giving it a feminine feel. I was not getting the look I wanted with the freezer paper for the letters so I choose to embroider the words instead. This also allowed me to curve the letters around the face of the monkey. I think they were a big hit!

The kids all wore them to the animal park. It did rain on us while we were there, but who lets a little rain ruin their fun? I think the rain was Joel's favorite part.

Now I just have to figure out next year's shirt. Any good ideas?

I love free stuff! update

So a while ago I signed up to be a Buzz agent. Basically they send you products for you to try and then you just talk about them. Well I joined my first campaign and was really excited because it was a product that I'd been looking at already. The only reason that I hadn't bought it already was because I already had eye shadow at home, and I kept talking myself out of it. For once procrastination paid off.

Overall I like the eye shadow. It is fast to apply, and even the first time I liked the results. I was a little worried that it would be too bold for everyday wear, but was pleasantly surprised to find that it was just fine. The only thing that I don't like is sometimes I get a build-up in my eyelid crease, but that is easy enough to fix.

Here is the best shot I have when wearing the eye shadow and gloss. I know it's not great, but it's what you get.

I love free stuff!

My first bzz agent campaign arrived today! More info to come later.




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If you like this top you should check out this awsome giveaway at Dear Lillie. She has a lot of really cute stuff in her Etsy store.

Blessing

A few months ago we attended an event at our church designed to help families make their homes the first place their kids are exposed to God. Every age has a different theme. Since we have a one year old, that's the one we went to. The topic was praying blessings over your children. One suggestion they had was framing one and putting it close to your child's bed. I liked the idea, but didn't want to use paper so I embroidered one of my favorites on a linen like fabric.

To start with I printed the verse off on the computer in a font I liked. Then I added the embelishments. Since the verse was about not being afraid, I went with the moon and stars. Next I traced it on to the fabric with carbon paper and a knitting needle. Since it was such a dark fabric I ended up going over the lines with a fabric marker. I think I maybe should have used a brighter contrast for the blue thread, but overall I like the way it came out.

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Treasure Hunter

A few days ago my husband and I went to Savers. I'd been intrigued by it since it opened, but I had never made it in. I was really impressed with the organization and cleanliness of the store. We didn't end up getting anything for ourselves, but we did find some great buys for Joel.

Here are my favorite finds.

This is why.

Here is his dad's favorite.